BMC Global Select June 2026

What a thrilling time for investments we live in. During the first half of the year, we have once again seen companies' profits driving the equity market upward over time and this driver has overcome virtually all the geopolitical challenges. As the old Wall Street adage proves over time: Pessimists sound smart, but optimists make money.

For BMC Global Select, the semiconductor firms TSMC, SK Hynix, and AMD, together with Coca-Cola Japan, were the fund's key contributors during June. And on the weaker side, we find Microsoft, Hong Kong Exchange, and UNFI. In the big picture, investments in AI are propelling many share prices upward, while NVIDIA appears to have lost some market share to other players. This creates opportunities for companies like AMD and TSMC that charge a good price for their in-demand products. The Polish economy is robust, and our investments in the Polish banks are developing well, with upward revisions among analysts. There are many other exciting company-specific restructuring cases in the fund, including United Natural Foods and Kyocera, which have seen their share prices up 35–70% this year. As you can understand, our 300-plus company interactions a year generate a raft of opportunities, and we remain positive on the equity market in general and on our funds in particular.

Key market events and trends

The first half of 2026 ended with MSCI ACWI up 14% in euros. This return was largely created during the second quarter, when the index rose by 16%, making this one of the strongest quarters of the past 25 years. The first quarter was weakened by geopolitical unrest in the Middle East and sharply rising energy prices, with the stock market lifting once these tensions eased.

The half year can be characterized as a market in constant rotation: gold and silver were in the lead initially, followed by oil and gas in March, as the war with Iran dominated. From April, AI infrastructure, memory chips, and semiconductors were at the forefront, while SpaceX's record IPO in June spurred positive sentiment further. The semiconductor sector rose by 88% in the second quarter, thanks to solid profit growth in Micron, Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix.

AI remains the dominant driver in the market. Data centers are being built at an extraordinary pace across the globe, and AI-driven products are increasingly woven into everyday life, a definitive sign that this is a structural trend sooner than a transitory theme.

It is worth noting that the solid boost to the market in the second quarter was created by only a handful of companies. The market breadth (the number of companies in the index driving the returns) is typically at 35–60%. During Q2 2026, it was at an unusually low figure of some 25%.

It is positive that the fundamentals of global companies as a group continue to strengthen. At the start of 2026, the market forecast profit growth of around 14% on average for the MSCI World index. This has since been revised upward to 22%, with expected profit growth of a further 14% for 2027.

Portfolio changes

During June, we invested in two new Special Situations: TFI International and ICON Plc. To finance these new holdings, we sold off Wheaton to take home profits. There is a clear rising trend in the US dollar, which is negative for gold-related stocks, so we appreciated the good performance and moved on. Transport and logistics company TFI International appealed on account of the sizable increases in freight prices that could benefit the company. Our investment in ICON is one of the most interesting Special Situations we have made for some time. This is a leading company that is seeing large increases in its order book, and then happens to make an error in its financial statements, with a plummeting share price as a consequence. Once this is corrected, the share price will surge once more.

The fund's positioning

The fund now comprises 35 companies exposed to a range of sectors and geographies, with companies chosen on their own merits. We believe a concentrated but also diversified, actively managed fund focused on stockpicking has all the prerequisites to deliver great returns to its unitholders over time.

* MSCI AC World NTR $ in EUR